Hong Kong News

Hardly a day goes by without a discussion on property, finance or a major development in the news in some part of the world. This section of the website brings you all the news on Savills from Hong Kong.

Prominent real estate advisor Savills saw both prime street shop and shopping centre rents remained flat during 2018 and rental growth had all but ground to a halt by Q4/2018 due to a weak sales performance. We forecast retail rents will rise modestly by less than 5% this year but note that 2019 has already got off to a positive start and risks are to the upside.

At the start of the year, prominent real estate advisor Savills saw office rents rising (+8% to 10%) and a retail sector recovery (+2% to 4%) in 2018. Sales figures increased (+5 to 9% depending on the asset) with the exception of prime street shops (-3%). Given the dual threats of the US / China trade conflict and interest rate hikes, the Grade A office market saw price declines, but rents are expected to gain 2.5 to 5% in 2019. Shopping centres and prime street shops should both hold steady at 2% gains in rent, but street shop prices could lose 5% this year.

Prominent real estate advisor Savills pointed out that recent rate hikes and uncertainties over the US / China trade conflict have held back the industrial sales market in Q4; and modern warehouse rents rose by 2.1% with vacancy droping to a recent low of 0.5%. Tight availability and growing demand are expected to prop up the leasing market.

Prominent real estate advisor Savills pointed out in its Q4 office leasing report that overall Grade A office rents rose by 1.3% to record levels. Wanchai / Causeway Bay, popular among rent refugees from Central, recorded the highest rental growth among major business districts (+10.2%).

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Savills predicts that the property markets in Hong Kong were set to experience a subdued 2019 in the shadow of continuing interest rate hikes, a shaky stock market, dampened sentiment and uncertainty on the global macroeconomic level.